The internet is in an uproar over yesterday’s news that upon receiving the go-ahead to produce the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action franchise reboot, Michael Bay decided to take the “Mutant” out of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” — instead opting to head down a well-traveled path: aliens. That’s right — Michael Bay has stated that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are from outer space.

Today, Bay chose to respond to the controversy, attempting to cool the raging waters by telling fans that they have yet to see any real information on the film or its storyline and advising that we all “chill”. We’re not kidding. Here’s all of what the Transformer director had to say:

“Fans need to take a breath, and chill. They have not read the script. Our team is working closely with one of the original creators of [Teenage Mutant] Ninja Turtles to help expand and give a more complex back story. Relax, we are including everything that made you become fans in the first place. We are just building a richer world.”

The good news: Michael Bay is only a producer on the TMNT reboot, meaning his ideas may not be gospel. Right now, screenplay duo Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec are at the wheel of the story and it will be up to them to decide how to flesh out the Turtles’ backstory — alien or mutant origin. Much can change in pre-production, and judging by the ridiculous amount of backlash from hardcore TMNT fans, we think it’s safe to say that no storyline is set in stone… yet.

Did Bay’s comment on the controversy help to calm you down, or are you even more incensed than before? Do you think the project is far along enough for us to slap a “FAILED” label onto it for these plot changes?

About Author

Mike Macauley is the founder and editor in chief of Lytherus.com. He also founded and runs Shurtugal.com, the official Inheritance Cycle community, and published his book, The Inheritance Almanac, in 2011. Mike can be found on Twitter at @mikemacauley.